A version of this article first appeared in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter. You can sign up for free right here.
“All too often, the people responsible for protecting the public do not appear to understand how information moves in the internet era. Meanwhile, people who best understand what content is likely to go viral are using that knowledge to mislead.”
That is the hellish reality of our information ecosystem, as stated by Renée DiResta, the technical research manager at Stanford Internet Observatory. DiResta’s assessment, published Wednesday in The Atlantic, rings true. As DiResta pointed out, credible sources of information too often don’t convey their message in an attention-grabbing style that is designed to be digestible for the masses on social media platforms.
“In many cases, algorithms have little or no authoritative content to push to users—because experts haven’t bothered to produce any, or because what they have produced simply isn’t compelling to the average social-media user,” DiResta explained. “Their work is locked in journals, while bloggers produce search-engine-optimized, Pinterest-ready posts offering up their personal viewpoint as medical fact.”
We have seen the effects of this every day for years. Fringe figures have used such tactics — think, for instance, how quickly memes with inaccurate info spread — to build massive audiences and disseminate misinformation and disinformation to untold amounts of people, while authoritative sources have time and time again either ignored the reality of what is happening online or tried to cool the fire using conventional methods that aren’t effective in this new information environment.
With the coronavirus, an added element of danger is present. It’s crucial that people have accurate information during a public health emergency. Falling victim to bad information can, quite frankly, put one’s life in danger. Authoritative sources and news orgs cannot afford to cede this ground to fringe characters and should continually be thinking of innovative ways to communicate with the communities they serve.
“We have not protected the public from disinformation”
Staying on this topic, NBC’s Ben Collins published an excellent piece Wednesday about the doctors who, as he put it, are “fed up with conspiracies ravaging ERs.” Several doctors told Collins that they “regularly had to treat patients who had sought care too late because of conspiracy theories spread on social media and that social media companies have to do more to counteract the forces that spread lies for profit.”
Dr. Duncan Maru, an epidemiologist in New York, told Collins that his colleagues had informed him about a recent patient who had ingested bleach. “Folks delaying seeking care or, taking the most extreme case, somebody drinking bleach as a result of structural factors just underlines the fact that we have not protected the public from disinformation,” Maru said.
Collins did point out that social media platforms have taken recent steps to curb the spread of coronavirus misinformation. But, Collins noted, “Despite the efforts, the distribution networks built up in recent years by fringe media personalities and activists on tech platforms and through websites have proven resilient.” Yep…
Axios: Trump seizes on death toll conspiracy theory
People of all ages and classes and professions fall victim to conspiracy theories. In many cases, one person especially vulnerable is the President of the United States. Axios’ Jonathan Swan and Sam Baker reported Wednesday that Trump and some of his top aides have seized on the conspiracy theory that the coronavirus death toll has been wrongly inflated.
Apparently, Trump is so convinced of this that he will soon begin to publicly question the death toll, Axios reported. This isn’t surprising, given the bad information Trump binges on. As I reported last month, this narrative about the death tolls has saturated right-wing media. Heavy hitters in the conservative news space, such as Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Tucker Carlson, and others, have all floated a version of it.
When I reported on this last month, I noted it would not surprise me if Trump picked up on it. Quite frankly, given how many right-wing media stars who have pushed the theory, the only thing surprising by Axios’ report is that it has taken Trump so long to latch onto the theory.
>> NYT’s James Poniewozik tweeted: “This is going to be a big test of the media–how many will shift the death toll into the category of ‘politicized’ issues where one person believes one thing & another person believes another and be realllly careful about saying who’s right because we can’t ‘appear to take sides…'”
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May 07, 2020 at 11:33AM
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Analysis: Hellish reality of modern information ecosystem presents particular danger during pandemic - KTVZ
"danger" - Google News
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